


Refinement, Individually

by Amaethon



Category: BioShock 1 & 2 (Video Games)
Genre: Age Difference, Angst and Drama, Body Image, F/F, Flirting, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Height Differences, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Lesbian Character, Morally Ambiguous Character, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Older Woman/Younger Woman, One Shot, Parent/Child Incest, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Canon, Self Confidence Issues, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:06:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29177679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amaethon/pseuds/Amaethon
Summary: They were all that remained now. Even after her conquest, to Eleanor, it did not matter how others she struck down saw her. The way she saw herself was a twisted mass of tentacled limbs and glowing, scarlet emotion that dragged her back to the cold depths of the ocean. To Sofia, it did not matter how Eleanor saw herself. It never did. Her mother saw all of her and right through her — loving all the horrors she witnessed.
Relationships: Eleanor Lamb & Sofia Lamb, Eleanor Lamb/Sofia Lamb
Kudos: 8





	Refinement, Individually

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the long absence for those waiting. Almost a year since my last work was posted. But it is strange times. So have more from this strange pairing. This story is set after the evil ending of BioShock 2 and was something I cobbled together from multiple ideas and similar things I have previously touched on.

* * *

'Why did I leave you alive?' Eleanor asked her mother in an uneasy but confidently low voice as she approached the spherical oval held limply in the burnt down mansion. Bending forward to fit in her tall figure.

Even the dust that sat in the once brightly-lit living room that stretched to hug the corner they occupied by the fireplace had not survived the blaze. The fire did not come from the blackened and useless crevice tucked away so neatly in the corpse of a house so thick with brown that its material could have regressed into a forest. Any flames still hungry and lingering lit rubies that flickered the family — and the young woman caused it all with Plasmid power, and a need to change. 

Finally sitting down, and with a sigh, Sofia finally replied, 'I had begun to ask myself the same thing...' Her words, however, were hollow of sadness and despair the rest of the world felt beneath Eleanor's power.

Normality had set in with the new order, the new meaning of time, its original incarnation that uselessly clung to people and a planet that no longer had use for it.

Any scars of decay and splattered charcoal crept from the mirror's metal frame, only aiding to enhanced a visage the young woman hated. Ghostly features that now haunted the once happy home she scorched from the surface, along with its occupants. Above the beige diving suit she still adorned, Eleanor could smell ash in her hazel hair. Matching the exterior of this refuge they hid from the hail in. Eyes sunken into sockets like the crumbling city they freed themselves from.

The rest of the world rotted the same now. They never even saw her coming. The marching of hail shot against wood and stone from clouds so black the sky might as well not exist — a feeling the pair knew and shared all too well. In another room, _Al Bowly_ sang softly through the scratching of a record player about how love was the sweetest, strangest, strongest, the oldest, yet the latest thing. Neither knew who put the decades-old song on, however.

None of this distracted Eleanor. Or Sofia.

'Quite what you are looking at pales in comparison to what I am.' The older woman stated in a languid tone as her enraptured eyes began to trace below her daughter's lower back. 'Just slightly, at least.'

Formalities were something the parent and child dispensed with long ago. It seemed on their feelings remained with what little options remained not under control. The Big Sister enjoyed the feeling — flirting eyes hidden behind black spectacles. But she could not understand why she earned it.

'I wish I could see _just_ what you see in me, Mother.' Eleanor said—with a hard swallow—clinging to her throat. 

'Maybe that is why you kept me alive?'

'Or someone to stare at the same way,' she admitted, catching a glance of her partner's jagged facial features and youthful warmth mingling with the glowing oranges of flames that managed to accompany the age. Forever beautiful and unjudging. 'Although I'd call the way you "look" at me gawking...'

Sofia leaned forward on the singed velvet sofa she occupied, blue rings and black holes still intently watching and singing her song. 'I would go further than just _gawking_ , my dove.'

Eleanor stood up straight again — her height truly towering now. 'I would ask you to do so if I knew why.' Eleanor rang in a tone caught between sly and defeated. If defeat was even a concept anymore.

'Because I have followed you to end of all things and you are still all I need. To look at, to touch and to love.'

Walking towards her across the remains of floorboards, the younger woman's footsteps matched the pulse of hail. She reached her mother, slowly sitting on a lap that demanded company, wrapping spindly arms around a longing body, resting her head against it as Sofia's own reached to hold Eleanor close.

They were still as the song ended. Savouring each note from men and their music; long since dead. Until nothing but the hail remained, stabbing the exposed ceiling that hung high above them, waiting to finally fall.

Some sickeningly sweet perfume still lingered in the nape of Sofia's neck. Simultaneously the most comforting and nostalgic thing Eleanor had experienced. Sofia too could taste ash on her tongue from nestling her face into her daughter's hair.

All the destruction they had caused above and below the waves washed aside in each other's company. No more night, or day, or time. Just constant memories or awareness. Dancing together, walking together, warming each other. Eleanor had finally seen the world. Sofia finally had her utopia.

'You were so angry when we first arrived on the surface,' Eleanor said softly with a wicked smirk.

The voice on Sofia's skin made it crawl and tremble, for she knew what force it had. 'I hardly remember, dear. Inevitable, I suppose. But I think this is the way it was destined to be.'

A chuckle left the Big Sister, 'Unable to keep your hands and eyes off me?' she teased.

Sofia bit her lower lip hard enough to feel her teeth touch. 'Well, maybe not quite. But for the first time in my life, I think I feel... content.' 

'...I do too.' Eleanor replied before meeting her lips with her mother's.

Sharing in a kiss that left them both light, it could have lasted a moment or forever, but eventually drew a close. The younger woman felt a thumb stroking her, a small gesture of affection that meant the _world_ to her. At that moment, she wondered if they could stay where they were forever. Or if perhaps they already were.

Propped against velvet and white noise all around them, they inevitably found their eyes finally drifting shut. Heavy and meaningful with each flutter that ferried them to a close. Steady breathes became in tandem, matching the hail, and fire, and record that spun around, and around, and around.

In Sofia's mind rested a final thought before dreams of a brighter world projected itself.

A thought she quickly forgot.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> I have another one shot planned, an AU this time. I also have a bigger, multiple chapter story planned after this set before the game that I've had in mind for several years now. But, even knowing I don't normally get comments, if you have any ideas or requests then please send them my way!


End file.
